A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.95

c21.95

These Hoysala temples, though basically developments of the South Indian style, represent an art which applies to stone the technique of the ivory worker or the goldsmith (Pl. XII, XIII). The wealth of jewellery borne by many of the figures, the variety of head-dresses and other details are well calculated to give a fair idea of the social life of the times. A very typical and complete example of the style is the Keśava temple at Somanāthapur twenty miles from Seringapatam. It is a triple shrine in the shape of a cross, 87 feet by 83 feet, with only one entrance on the east, set within a rectangular courtyard surrounded by sixty-four cells, the whole enclosure measuring 215 feet by 177 feet. ‘So well balanced and finely proportioned are its parts that no element obtrudes or is out of place, and although the three stellate towers are only 30 feet high they are fully in accord with the rest of the building.’